Lost mail? Help is at hand
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
IF YOU’RE fed up with those, ahem, "health supplements" you’ve ordered online from a reputable company in New Mexico ending up delivered to Mrs Nosy Neighbour up the road, salvation may be at hand.
And no longer will that, eh, "plastic-based virtual friend" you spotted in a catalogue on the top shelf be dispatched to the retired priest who shares your address on Main Street. Help is on the way, via a new postcode system that will see every home and business having their own unique address.
Conversations like the following could soon be a thing of the past: "Hello, Mick here from Punctual Parcels. Where are ya?"
"Go into the estate, over the road, around the green, past the third junction, don’t run over the barefoot kids, and if you see a burnt-out schoolbus, you’ve gone too far. We’re in number 8."
"Yeah, but which number 8?"
"Well, I wouldn’t start from where you are anyway..."
A new postcode system, which will cover the entire island, has just been launched, meaning there will no longer be an excuse for missed deliveries, lost post and flowers that end up with your neighbour’s girlfriend.
It’s all the brainchild of a "GPS and electronic position company" that has launched "a new way of postcoding Ireland" using Position-Orientated Navigation Codes, or PONC, through its new website, www.irishpostcodes.ie.
According to Cork-based GPS Ireland, everywhere in Ireland and Northern Ireland can be postcoded using a PONC. The seven-character code can be passed on by email and instead of long-winded directions, a delivery van can see the exact address on an electronic map.
GPS and SatNav manufacturer Garmin has implemented the system in its Nuvi 700 series of SatNav’s for testing and, if all goes well, the system will introduced to all Garmin SatNavs later in the year.
* www.irishpostcodes.ie